The £50 billion High Speed 2 project should be scrapped and its funding used to revive railway lines abolished by Dr Beeching, according to a Conservative think tank.
A report by the Bow Group claims that dozens of redundant lines could be brought back to life at a fraction of the cost of building one high-speed route to “already well-connected cities”.
The study found that the reinstatement of existing lines would ease pressure on crowded commuter routes while providing a lifeline to towns cut off from the rail network for 50 years.
It suggested that dormant routes between London and Brighton, Manchester and Sheffield, Bolton and Bury and Stratford-upon-Avon and Bedford were among those that could benefit.
Researchers pointed to the success of the newly reopened Borders Railway, from Edinburgh to Tweedbank, which carried almost 126,000 passengers in September. There have been persistant questions about the HS2 scheme to run 250mph trains between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds. The line will cost an estimated £50 billion based on 2011 prices.
Today’s report – Reviving Britain’s Railways – says that the scheme “does nothing to create new links, and it doesn’t tackle some of the greatest congestion in the UK, around London and the southeast”. Elizabeth Anderson, its author, added: “Schemes such as HS2 will see spending spiralling out of control, whereas using existing infrastructure, creating new stations and investing in rolling stock is far more cost-effective.